S: 9. By this Article Congress will obtain unlimitted power
over all the Ports in the Union and consequently acquire
an influence that may be prejudicial to general Liberty. It
was sufficient for all the purposes of General Government
that Congress might lay what Duties they thought proper,
and those who did not approve the extended power here
given, contended that the Establishment of the Particular
ports ought to remain with the Government of the respective
States; for if Maryland for instance should have occasion
to oppose the Encroachments of the General Government--Congress
might direct that all Vessels coming into
this Bay, to enter and clear at Norfolk, and thereby become
as formidable to this State by an exercise of this
power, as they could be by the Military arrangements or
Civil Judiciaries. That the same reason would not apply in
prohibiting the respective States from laying a Duty on Exports,
as applied to that regulation being exercised by
Congress: in the latter case a revenue would be drawn
from the productive States to the General Treasury, to t[?]
ease of the unproductive, but particular States might be
desirous by this method to contribute to the support of
their Local Government or for the Encouragement of
their Manufactures.